The treatment of urinary bladder cancer with hyperthermia in combination with radiation and bleomycin was investigated. Immediately following a daily course of external bladder irradiation (150–200 rad; total 4 week exposure of 3500–4000 rad), patients diagnosed with transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder were irrigated with a solution of warmed saline (intravesical temperature, 42°C−43°C), containing 30 μg/ml bleomycin. Of a total of 33 patients, complete responses were observed in 14 patients, and partial responses were observed in 10. The side effects of the combined treatment were limited to local symptoms of bladder and urethral irritation. These preliminary results suggest that the combined use of hyperthermia, radiation, and bleomycin may represent an effective conservative therapy for the management of bladder cancer in humans.

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Medroxyprogesterone acetate has been used prophylactically in 35 patients with stages I and IIIA renal cell carcinoma who had undergone radical nephrectomy. Metastasis was noted in 26 per cent (9 of 35) of the patients who had received the drug and in 44 per cent (20 of 45) of those who had not (controls). The incidence of metastasis in patients who had undergone nephrectomy more than 3 years previously was 10 per cent (3 of 31) for patients who received medroxyprogesterone acetate and 35 per cent (15 of 43) for the control group, the difference being statistically significant. Prognosis tended to be better in patients who had received medroxyprogesterone acetate than in the controls, and relative 3 and 5-year survival rates being 99.3 and 87.2 per cent, respectively, in the former group, and 86.8 and 75.0 per cent, respectively, in the latter group. There was no significant difference between these 2 groups. However, it may be concluded that prophylactic medroxyprogesterone acetate seems to be beneficial in the prevention of postoperative metastasis of renal cell carcinoma.

Serum LH and FSH levels were determined before and after LH-RH injection (100 micrograms, i.m.) in patients with prostatic cancer who were chronically treated with either chlormadinone acetate (CMA, 100 mg/day) or ethynylestradiol (EE, 1 mg/day). In patients treated with EE, the levels of serum LH and FSH before and after injection of LH-RH were significantly lower than those in controls. On the other hand in patients treated with CMA, the basal levels of serum gonadotropins did not differ from those in controls, and the increase in gonadotropin after LH-RH injection was comparable to that in controls. To examine the effects of these steroids on the hypothalamo-hypophysial axis in the regulation of gonadotropin secretion, CMA or EE was implanted in castrated male rats. CMA, EE or cholesterol (control) was implanted in the hypothalamic median eminence-arcuate nucleus region through a stainless doublecannula. EE implantation resulted in a 75% decrease in serum LH (p < 0.001) and a 38% decrease in serum FSH (p < 0.05) from the control levels on day 5 of implantation. On the other hand, CMA implantation induced a 33% decrease in serum LH (p < 0.05) from the control level on day 3 of implantation, but no significant change in serum FSH levels. The injection of 2 micrograms/kg of LH-RH on day 7 of implantation induced significant lowering of LH and FSH levels. There was no significant difference between serum levels of the hormones 20 min after LH-RH injection for these two groups and those for the control group. These studies suggest that EE has a potent negative feedback effect on both LH and FSH secretion, and that CMA has a mild negative feedback effect on LH secretion.

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